Great Christmas Memories part II

I also have very fond memories of Christmas in the late 60's and early 70's after moving to Springfield. In '69 I was especially pumped because I got Electric Football which was all the rage then. I still remember coming down the stairs and seeing that huge cardboard box standing upright with a picture of a football player. You all remember electric football, it took 15 minutes to set up the players for each play and once you were ready to go half the players would lock arms and waltz in a circle. I used to love the felt football, the QB with the slingshot arm, and the kicker with the swingin leg.

Circa 1970 I got both Monday Night Football and the infamous Photo - Electric football. That was the one where you placed offensive and defensive formation cards on the "field", with one on top and one on the bottom. You then flicked on a light switch to see if the play worked. Doc Paul will remember us all sitting around the table playing with our cousins and friends. I also received another cool gadget that same year. It looked like a transistor radio and you inserted these little plastic discs which looked like CDs. There was a CD for each football player that came with that pack. I remember that I had discs for Daryle Lamonica and Dick Butkus. I know Doc Paul will remember the announcer on the Butkus disc shouting out in a weird voice and accent, " the QB fades back, he's being chased by Dick Butkus."

Another big hit was table top hockey which I got in '70 or '71. That was the game with the rods and you could spin the players around. It came with two different kinds of pucks. One was a solid black plastic puck, and the other one had a pin ball in the center. I remember having a tournament one Christmas day with our cousins, when there about 6 of us sitting around the kitchen table screaming and pucks were flying off the game table and onto the floor. All of these games were classics and we got years of fun out of them.